Love Notes

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  I learn something new every day. Here’s one story: Over the last few months, I’ve needed to visit one Angels’ Place home multiple times. On my first visit, John didn’t want to engage with me. A few visits later, he simply said hi. Later, he showed me some of the things he had been doing on his iPad And a visit later, John offered to make me a cup of coffee, shared his private stash of International Delight coffee creamer, and we had a nice talk about Tom Brady, and how much he loves his Angels’ Place housemates.   In that one setting, here are three things I learned: 1. Like all of us, our residents want to have relationships.  Sometimes it takes a while to establish trust, but our residents are capable of great relationships. 2. If they can, our residents want to do things themselves.  Before you do for them, let them accomplish things themselves.  If they...

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and learn about their families.  I learn something new every day. Beyond the joy of working with our residents, I’ve also come to know some of their parents, guardians and family members.  Here are three things I’ve learned about them: 1. First and foremost, these parents want the same things for their children that all of us do – nothing more and nothing less.  And yet, they know that some things will never happen and few things come easy -- so they need to continuously advocate of behalf of their child.  They are grateful when others advocate with them. 2. The system of care is complicated and time consuming.  It’s exhausting. 3. Every day, in addition to dealing with the challenge of caring for their loved one, they think about “what happens to this person when I’m gone”.  Angels’ Place is one answer to that question, but unfortunately, we can’t be the...

There is so much we can all learn about people with intellectual and developmental disabilities – and about the people who care for them.  I learn something new every day. Angels’ Place employs over 100 caregivers.  Here are three things I’ve learned about them: 1. The people who choose the caregiver profession are kind, generous souls.  Most consider this their sacred mission in life.  Many have been caring for someone – their own child, a parent, a grandparent -- nearly their entire life. 2. This is rewarding work, but hard work – its easy to imagine the fun times – enjoying a meal, going for a walk, playing a game… but their work includes preparing those meals, keeping the house clean, laundry, and personal hygiene care. 3. The training is difficult and the documentation and paperwork seems to never end.  What they accomplish is amazing. There is so much to learn – and we are all learning every day.   We are so thankful for the people who chos...